Overweight Problem among Early Adolescents in Preparatory Schools in Tanta City

Abstract
Background: Overweight is a major public health problem affecting adolescents. Prevalence of overweight and obesity is rapidly increasing. Good nutritional knowledge and behavior may help in prevention of overweight and obesity.
Aim of Study: 1- Assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among preparatory school children in Tanta City. 2- Assess students' nutritional knowledge and eating habits.
Subjects and Methods: Cross sectional study carried-out at the preparatory schools in Tanta City, Egypt. The study subjects included; 250 boy and 250 girl were chosen by stratified random sample technique. The first stratum was boys and girls schools and the second stratum was school grades. Each school was divided into three grades and one class was chosen randomly from each grade.
Tools of the Study:
1-Predesigned questionnaire asked about (sociodemographic data, nutritional knowledge and eating behavior).
2-Weight and height measurements to calculate BMI.
Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among studied group was (22.8% and 11.8%) respectively. Prevalence of overweight among girls and boys (13.4% and 9.4%) re-spectively, while obesity (5.2% and 6.6%) respectively. (76.4%) of the students had fair nutritional knowledge level while only (19.4%) of them had good nutritional knowledge. (88.4%) of the students had fairly sound nutritional behavior while only (5.4%) of them had sound nutritional behavior.
Conclusion and Recommendations: More than one fifth of the students in the study were overweight with smaller percent of obesity. Overweight was more common among females while obesity was more among males. Fair nutritional knowledge and behavior were found in most of the students. So we should encourage healthy eating among adolescents and provide healthy snacks at school canteen with a suitable price. Guide students and their families to the best YouTube channels that can help them to prepare healthy food in a rapid and delicious way.